New York Times Editorial to GOP: Message Isn’t the Problem

Today’s editorial in the New York Times makes the point you’ve been hearing from us for a while: Republicans’ problem isn’t their message. But it’s entertaining to watch Republican leaders who still haven’t figured that out. Some highlights (or lowlights, as the case may be):

“For weeks, party leaders like Eric Cantor have talked about broadening the party’s appeal... Unfortunately, the report seems overly focused on the mechanics of how Republicans should focus their message, conveniently ignoring what that message should be.And for years, the party’s message has been the opposite of inclusion, driving away the very voters the report seeks to attract.”

“Most significant, the report shows no recognition that the Republican goals of shrinking government and lowering taxes for the rich — which have turned particularly malicious during the Tea Party era — have proved brutally unpopular at a time when the recession left more people in need of government assistance than ever. The party’s job, it says, ‘is to champion private growth so people will not turn to the government in the first place,’ but the party has never been able to demonstrate how its trickle-down agenda of cutting budgets and taxes, embodied by the new Paul Ryan House budget, would do that.”

That budget, of course, is on the Floor this week. More proof that Republicans don’t get it, since the American people clearly rejected their budget in 2012. The message doesn’t matter when people don’t like what you’re selling.